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A move towards Discord

Hello everyone,

The Board had a discussion about our current situation in regards to running TeamSpeak and Discord simultaneously. Over a year ago, we attempted to make a full switch over to Discord. Unfortunately, there was a lot of backlash from the community because of this decision. Last time, we didn't approach the community about the change prior to attempting to move forward, but now we are.

Forcing everyone over to Discord for voice communication would also increase chat activity and general use of our Discord. We're quite behind other communities in terms of how established we are on Discord, especially in regards to how many people are in our Discord and how many people actually utilize it. Potential sponsors will most likely end up joining our Discord rather than our TeamSpeak, and we'd want them to see a thriving one as opposed to a stale one. Additionally, it seems quite evident that a majority of people on our servers would prefer to join Discord over TeamSpeak. Since this seems to be the case, you'll probably be looking at a lot more people using our voice chats and easier integration of players into the community. The main argument that comes up is that we already have so many people used to using TeamSpeak, but that will continue to happen if we leave it open.

We'd probably be looking to do a trial run for a short period of time to test the waters as opposed to an immediate full move, but the end goal is to move over to Discord completely. This thread is open for discussion on that matter. Realize this isn't a final decision as of yet, which is why we're coming to you guys about it. Let's all keep our heads on straight and not freak out, we're willing to hear what you all have to say.

I know it's April 1st and shit but this isn't a joke. A discussion thread would not have been my elaborate idea for a prank. Don't shit post because we're gonna moderate this. The bad timing of the thread is because some dude on steroids who plays with airplanes all day wants to fuck with me.

I always advocated for a switch over to Discord because of the many benefits it has as a community builder with its ever-growing popularity and user-friendly interface being so simple that even @ThRza 's grandma could use it. While there may be concerns about voice quality, as long as people are willing to nitro boost the server, we can access a higher quality of voice than what TeamSpeak offers. I think a trial run would be the best course of action since essentially stress testing Discord to compare its compatibility with both our current regulars and the prospect of attracting new players would provide really valuable data to see if the time is really right to make the switch.

I've always been a big proponent of wanting to see this switch happen since I think it will allow this community to grow beyond CS:GO and start a new era and hopefully surge and thrive. But if you guys run this trial run and it doesn't go to plan, it's definitely worth figuring out how to be prepared for a full switch and coming back however many weeks/months later.

I'm extremely passionate towards Teamspeak and I agree that a move to Discord would help us expand but I don't think getting rid of TS for Discord would be healthy. Some people like Teamspeak more than they like Discord and if we were to get rid of TS, those people will probably never end up using the Discord. You could say that the reason why no one uses the SG Discord to talk is because we have a Teamspeak but I think it's because there is a clear preference for Teamspeak. A lot of the people in our Teamspeak sit in a private channel with their friends. They talk with who they want to talk. There is nothing stopping people from quitting Teamspeak and hopping into our Discord voice channels. They simply prefer Teamspeak. Some people will end up using the Discord and others will split off and make their own with their friends thus killing the community in a sense. It's already happening now but the problem will get worse. It isn't preventable in either scenario and we aren't going to force anybody to use any of our platforms I know that the last time that this was introduced it was kind of forced on everybody and maybe that is what caused the distaste towards Discord but what changed in a year? I agree that a move to Discord would definitely help us expand our community but I do not think it would work as well as we would hope.

So here's my thoughts on discord looking at it from seeing other communities discords and our own. Discord does not foster the same voice culture that Teamspeak does. The servers may be the most important aspect of this community when it comes to introducing members to us but when it comes to fostering relationships teamspeak has provided that essential environment for many years at this point. The trial may go well and it may go well for a few months afterwards but eventually just as all other community servers I've seen on discord you'll have dead voice channels and incoherent chat channels.

I hope this goes well for the communities sake but I could really see this decision backfiring 6 months from the go live with a dead discord and people scratching their heads trying to figure out how this once close knit community is unraveling.

I don't get why the goal is to strip away the platform that clearly has the preference over the other. I get teamspeak is more foreign to some but there are features to it the community clearly prefers. It's not that hard coming into the community and learning how to use teamspeak. Forcing the transition also risks killing a big part of the community. Instead of forcing it down the community's throat, why not just try to utilize Discord in community/server events and such to see how people feel about Discord and decide where to move from there?

[DATA EXPUNGED]

Join Date:

February 2016

Location:

Quebec

Posts:

2,575

It's fair for you guys to express concerns over a potential switch, but an expression I keep hearing is "forcing down x's throat".

I was heavily, and I mean heavily against a discord switch last year. To this day, I still believe TS is the superior voip program, that its functionality and the place it has in our community strongly pertains to its very success. However, I've come to the conclusion that the switch is an inevitability. The same thing could've been said (and probably were) about mumble and ventrilo. The reach Discord has over TS is not even a competition and Discord's versatility is unparalleled in the industry.

What I ask of you, before criticism rises out of emotional discourse and fears of SG shutting down, is to see this as an expansion, as a transition, rather than a brute-forced change. We will not implement discord like we tried to last year, this will be a process. We don't have ETAs, nor will any of you wake up with the TS server down for good. We listen closely to the community's feedback, because as many have mentioned, the niche spot we found with Teamspeak is a non-negligible factor in this discussion, and that brutally switching from a platform to another would hurt more than benefit us. We are open to ideas, suggestions, any feedback, or concerns that you guys might have, but it is important to state facts over emotional nostalgia. This will be a big move, I know that, but I want this to be done as a community effort, and not perceived as the board forcing a change that nobody wants down their throats.

Like we said, we did not state a specific date nor do we plan on doing this very soon, but you can gradually expect improvements over our discord and how we deal with many of the sub/vip perks and functions to retain 100% of what we've built so far. I hope this is somewhat comforting for some, because I completely understand how some of you guys might feel, being a part of the wave last time. If you have anything to say, contact us, whether it be here or elsewhere, we will listen.

I know many people prefer teamspeak over discord and for good reason. To compare the two in terms of their voice servers is not a proper comparison imo because TS is focused on its VOIP while discord is mainly text chatting.

The best comparison i can give to discord is that it's a better version of Slack. Other than that, currently discord does not offer the same interactive experience that teamspeak does. I feel moving away from the interactive environment of teamspeak will drive the community into sub-groups and provide less interaction between new and old members of the community.

My opinion of this is based off of what teamspeak does that discord can not, which is allow members to interact in a private manor, available to only people inside of their text/voice channel, while discord would require and open text channel paired with its voice channel that anyone could join into. There may be a way to do this in discord, but it would still cause more confusion as to which channel someone is messaging in compared to teamspeak's text channels linked to their voice channels.

For the reasons stated above (which may not be worded properly and be confusing) I believe we should keep teamspeak until a platform comes along that can properly mimic its usage and functionality.

TLDR: Teamspeak and discord are similar in some aspects but not a lot, mainly voice channels being superior on teamspeak.

What I ask of you, before criticism rises out of emotional discourse and fears of SG shutting down, is to see this as an expansion, as a transition, rather than a brute-forced change. We will not implement discord like we tried to last year, this will be a process. We don't have ETAs, nor will any of you wake up with the TS server down for good. We listen closely to the community's feedback, because as many have mentioned, the niche spot we found with Teamspeak is a non-negligible factor in this discussion, and that brutally switching from a platform to another would hurt more than benefit us. We are open to ideas, suggestions, any feedback, or concerns that you guys might have, but it is important to state facts over emotional nostalgia. This will be a big move, I know that, but I want this to be done as a community effort, and not perceived as the board forcing a change that nobody wants down their throats.

Like we said, we did not state a specific date nor do we plan on doing this very soon, but you can gradually expect improvements over our discord and how we deal with many of the sub/vip perks and functions to retain 100% of what we've built so far. I hope this is somewhat comforting for some, because I completely understand how some of you guys might feel, being a part of the wave last time. If you have anything to say, contact us, whether it be here or elsewhere, we will listen.

I guess a suggestion I would have to try and see how ready certain aspects of our Discord and Discord as a whole for a switchover would be to "stress test" certain things at small increments that would become the eventual norm on the Discord. On the public side of things, Jackbox events/sessions and movie nights are primed to be a testing ground for our Discord. On the staff side, perhaps holding certain team meetings in Discord can allow you guys to test the limits of the voice quality and see how many nitro boosters we would need to have comparable voice quality to TeamSpeak.

On top of this, we (as a community/active forum goers) could hop on the Discord from time to time and show activity in both the voice channels and text channels, perhaps with some sort of incentive to get the less motivated members into it. Discord is very much "monkey see monkey do" when it comes to joining voice channels and joining into discussions. Hopefully by getting some staff and regulars talking in voice and text will make less active members and new people want to join in.

I really don't understand why it has to be one or the other... discord is free and teamspeak's licensing fees are more than covered by donations. Say what you want about not 'forcing it down peoples throats' but the reality is if people prefer the program and access gets removed in the future you are effectively forcing them to use discord to participate in a similar environment. You can say that y'all are 'listening closely to the communities feedback' but where are the results? Most of the established members here clearly prefer teamspeak over discord for voice whether due to reasons listed here or better quality through codecs that discord does not offer. I'm trying to keep this as neutral as possible because I don't want to come off as an asshole but saying shit like we're just acting out of nostalgia is ridiculous and very clearly not a 'factual' argument like that of which you would like us to provide.

I get that 'Discord is the future' or whatever but from personal experience (sneks community, communities for other games, ect) discord does not maintain a consistent voice presence whatsoever.

Basically my question is why keep bringing this issue up when there is clearly pushback every time for legit reasons? Both platforms cant coexist?